


Out of Time

by sahiya



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-20
Updated: 2013-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-20 18:26:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/890435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sahiya/pseuds/sahiya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose had always thought of her time on the TARDIS as time out of time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wojelah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wojelah/gifts).



> Thanks very much to fuzzyboo for the beta read!

Rose’s phone rang in the middle of the TARDIS night cycle. The Doctor was the only one awake; both his humans had gone off to sleep for their respective sleep cycles. The Doctor expected Jack to be up in no more than an hour or two, but Rose would probably sleep for another four. 

The phone was sitting on the edge of the console when it started buzzing. The Doctor paused in his routine maintenance and eyed it warily. It was Jackie, of course. Better to just let it go to voicemail. Rose could call her back when she got up. The Doctor grabbed the spanner he’d surfaced for and slid back under the console. 

Except the phone started up again. The Doctor slid out from underneath the console and glared at it. Bloody Jackie Tyler. She’d probably keep calling until one of them picked up, he thought darkly, and answered it. “Hullo, Jackie,” he said. 

“Doctor, what are you - never mind. I need to talk to Rose.” 

“Rose is asleep,” he said. “I can have her call you when she gets up.”

“No,” Jackie said, “I need to talk to her now.”

The Doctor started to argue, then stopped. Jackie’s voice sounded strange, he thought. As though she’d been crying. “Is everything all right?” he asked. 

“No,” Jackie said, her voice cracking right in half. “Rose’s grandfather died.”

***

Jack was a light sleeper by both inclination and training. He woke when the Doctor shook Rose awake to tell her that her mother was on the phone for her and she’d better take it. “What, now?” Rose asked, groggily. “Can’t it wait?”

“No, Rose, it can’t,” the Doctor said. Something in his voice made Jack push himself up - probably the same thing that made Rose take the phone and leave the room. The Doctor sat down on the edge of the bed, rubbing the back of his neck tiredly. 

“What’s wrong?” Jack asked, because it was clear that something was. 

“Rose’s grandfather died,” the Doctor said. 

“Oh,” Jack said, surprised into silence. 

The Doctor looked down. “She’ll want to go back for the funeral.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Jack said, sitting up. “Not like that’s a problem, is it?”

The Doctor missed a beat before he answered. “No,” he said. “‘Course not.” 

Jack frowned. Something was off about the Doctor’s reaction, but it was hard for him to say what it was. He didn’t love taking Rose home, Jack knew that much, but it had to be more than that. Maybe it was just _why_ they were taking her home. The Doctor was good in a crisis, but this normal, everyday circle-of-life stuff? From what Jack had seen - which admittedly wasn’t much yet - that was much harder for him.

Rose came back after only a few minutes. Her eyes were red, her face tear-streaked. She crawled onto the bed, and Jack tucked her up close to himself. He gave the Doctor a look, and the Doctor pushed himself further up on the bed, so that they were bracketing her, holding her between them. 

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Jack said, pressing his lips against her forehead. “Were you two close?”

Rose nodded. “When I was little, he used to watch me while Mum was at work.” Her voice broke. She turned, burying her face in Jack’s shoulder, and he held her close. The Doctor was holding himself rigid, but after another pointed look from Jack, he reached forward and placed his hand on Rose’s shoulder, squeezing it gently. 

After only a minute or two, Rose gulped some air and pulled herself together. “Sorry,” she murmured, swiping at her eyes and nose. “I just - I never thought something like this might happen while I was gone. I didn’t even see him last time I went home. I didn’t know he was sick. Mum said she didn’t want to worry me, but I wish she had done.”

There wasn’t much to say to that. The three of them were quiet for a few minutes. Rose’s breathing hitched every once in a while, but she seemed calmer now. Jack wondered if she might get a bit more sleep. 

He was just about to suggest that she try when Rose spoke up. “Doctor, I was wondering . . . I thought . . . could we go back earlier?”

The Doctor frowned. “You mean before the funeral? I’ll get you there on-time, Rose, I promise. Time Lord’s honor.”

Rose shook her head. “No - I mean, yes, but no -I mean before he died. So I could see him. I haven’t seen him in so long,” she said, voice wavering, “and I wish - I just want to see him one last time. Please, Doctor. It wouldn’t be like last time, I promise. There wouldn’t be any other me to run into, and I wouldn’t try to save him. Just, _please_.”

The Doctor looked stricken. Jack didn’t know what _last time_ Rose was talking about, but the Doctor met Jack’s eyes briefly, and Jack knew what the answer would be. What the answer had to be. “I’m sorry, Rose,” the Doctor said. “We can’t. You know we can’t.”

“But why?” Rose demanded. “We could’ve gone back any time before he died, it’s a _time machine_. Please, Doctor. I just want to see him one last time.” 

Her voice cracked. Jack pulled her close and tucked her head beneath his chin. “That’s not how it works, sweetheart,” Jack said, because the Doctor looked like he’d been slapped. “Now that we know, we can’t just go back. Besides,” he tightened his arms around her, “do you really think you could do it? Do you really think you could see him, knowing he was about to die, and not let on?”

Rose didn’t answer. But she flinched away from the Doctor when he tried to touch her, and after a moment the Doctor got up and left, looking utterly miserable. Rose started to cry again. Jack held her closer and tried not to think about all the things he would change in his own past if he could. 

***

Rose left the kitchen with two mugs of tea in hand. She felt weird, like her head was stuffed full of cotton wool from crying too much. But she also felt calm, as though the crying had sort of washed her clean. She was still sad, but she wasn’t shocked and angry anymore. And she had an apology to make. 

The Doctor was alone in the console room. He was sitting on the floor by the console, detangling a whole mess of wires and muttering to the TARDIS. He glanced up as she came in and accepted the mug of tea she offered him. She sat down on the floor next to him, cross-legged, and leaned against his arm. 

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t’ve taken it all out on you. ‘s not your fault.”

“It’s all right,” he said, sliding an arm around her back. “I understand. There are . . . an uncountable number of things I wish I could go back and change.” He shook his head. “But what happened before, with your dad - that was a mistake. And this would be, too.”

She sighed. “Yeah. I know. Besides, Jack’s right. I couldn’t fake it.” She swallowed, her throat feeling tight again. “But it hurts, Doctor. It hurts a lot that I didn’t go see him last time I was home. I never thought . . .” She stopped. “I never thought something like this would happen while I was gone. It didn’t occur to me that time would just keep going without me, and my grandpa might die or my mum might get sick and I just wouldn’t be there. I always thought that my time here didn’t count somehow. Like it was time out of time. But it isn’t, is it?”

Rose felt the Doctor go very still next to her. “Do you want to go home?” he asked. 

“I do, yeah,” she said. The Doctor stiffened, sucking in a quick breath as though someone had punched him. She leaned against him, laying her head on his shoulder. “For the funeral, I mean. Maybe for a few more days, too. You don’t have to stay,” she added, even though she really didn’t want him and Jack to leave her there. “It might be too domestic for you.”

His arm tightened around her. “I’m not leaving the Powell Estates without you, Rose Tyler. Not unless you tell me to.” 

“I won’t,” she said, and smiled for the first time since her mother had called. It felt a bit wobbly, but it was better than nothing. She pushed herself to her feet and offered him her hand. “Come on. Jack was going to make breakfast, and I think we all need full stomachs before we head to London.”

_Fin._


End file.
